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MONTREAL -- Who knew that sitting ranks right up there with deadly habits like smoking and not buckling up your seatbelt? According to the latest research, too much time in a chair isn’t just bad for your health – it actually reduces life expectancy.

Are the consequences so dire that we can expect to see health warnings on couches and the banning of chairs at work and in restaurants? Health researchers aren’t ready to go that far, but they are sending out a strong message to get up off your butt.

“Sitting time is emerging as a strong candidate for being a cancer risk factor in its own right,” said Neville Owen of Australia's Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, speaking at a recent meeting of the American Institute of Cancer Research. “It seems highly likely that the longer you sit, the higher your risk. This phenomenon isn’t dependent on body weight or how much exercise people do.”

The American Institute of Cancer Research links 49,000 cases of breast cancer and 43,000 cases of colon cancer occurring in the U.S. annually to sedentary habits like sitting.

But that’s not the only health consequence of spending too much time in a chair, car or on your favourite comfy couch. Several studies have found that sitting too long behind a desk doubles the risk of cardiovascular disease, compared to more active jobs. And a study of Canadians noted an increase in mortality risk among those who spent most of their day sitting.

How much sitting is too much?

The American Cancer Society noted that men who spent six or more hours of their daily leisure time sitting had a mortality rate 20 per cent higher than men who sat for half that time or less. Among women who sat for six or more hours a day, the mortality rate doubled.

The message that sitting is bad for your health isn’t aimed solely at couch potatoes. Even regular exercisers are susceptible to the danger. Accumulating the recommended 30 minutes of exercise a day isn’t enough to combat the consequences of sitting for six or more hours a day.

This wave of studies has resulted in a new paradigm that health researchers call “inactivity physiology.” Different from examining the consequences of too little exercise, this body of research looks at the health and wellness implications of sedentary behaviour.

To get an idea of just how much of the average day is spent inactive, accelerometers (a small device similar to a pedometer that tracks the volume, intensity and frequency of movement) were used to collect data from several large pools of study subjects.

The results suggest that between one and five per cent of our day is spent performing moderate-intensity activity, with less than one per cent of that time spent in bouts of activity lasting 10 minutes or more. The rest of the day is spent either seated or performing very light activity like getting dressed, making meals and walking to and from the car or public transit.

What is it about sitting that taxes our health?

The lack of movement shuts down almost all muscle activity, which in turn has a negative effect on many of the body’s metabolic functions.

It also dials down calorie burn to the point where weight gain is inevitable, which leads to yet another set of poor health outcomes.

So how do you combat the unhealthy effects of too much sitting? Get up and move a minimum of once an hour. Set the timer on your phone to go off once every 60 minutes and heed the call to get up out of your chair. Visit a colleague to discuss a work-related issue (instead of sending an email), walk up and down a flight of stairs or just get up and shake your legs.

You can also use the phone to trigger an “out of chair” experience. Every time the phone rings, get up out of your chair and stretch your legs, roll your shoulders and rotate your torso to the right and left. Keep moving until the phone conversation is over and then return to your chair.

And for goodness sake, stop eating at your desk. Get up and go to the lunch room, join a colleague for a noon-hour stroll or sign up for a nearby fitness class.

As for at home, use TV commercials to do more than walk to the fridge.

Get up and stretch, march on the spot or drop to the floor and do a few pushups. (Place your hands on the couch and your feet on the floor for an easier version of the pushup.)

Even your commute can be more active. Walk an extra block to the bus or métro, or stand up a couple of stops before the end of your route.

Once you start getting out of your chair more often, you’ll learn to appreciate the change of pace and posture. Energy levels will rise, your mood will pick up and you’ll stop whittling away at your life expectancy. Your body is made to move, so go ahead and let it do what it's meant to do.

jbarker@videotron.ca

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